Marked By Destiny, Marked by Tragedy Part 2 (No Judge Yet)

[Patlin]

Continued from the original adventure by Paranoia833.

Quick Housekeeping Bits
Please use invisible castle to make all the dice rolls you would make in a normal game. It completely bogs me down if I have to do the rolling for the PCs as well as the NPCs, and if I get bogged down I don't update as often and things spiral out of control and... well, you get the point. Please?

(I'll do the dice rolling if you simply cannot, for whatever reason. If such is the case, make sure to post the modifiers.)

I will mostly use Invisible Castle as well, and generally I post the links for each roll. If I miss one or two, you are welcome to do a search there under "DM Patlin" to see what I've been up to. Being more-or-less human, I will occasionally screw something up. If I do and you tell me about it quickly, I'll fix it. If we figure out a mistake several rounds later, though, I may simply decide you're stuck with it. Example: If I'm applying sneak attack damage to your character and I forgot you've got a blur spell up, tell me right away!

Also, please be cautious when using sblocks and the title box. Depending on how I'm acessing the board, I sometimes can't see stuff in those two places. For example, I use "topic review" a lot when resolving combats, and that mode doesn't show any titles.

Finally, I don't generally used colored text, as it often seems it causes someone to have trouble reading it. If you want to use colored text, I use the default black background, and bright colors are apreciated!

Reference
XP Award #1

[Patlin]

After a considerable amount of further conversation, which Alysina continually tries to reframe as negotiation, the dialog breaks down. Alysina begins to suspect that the Deneith guardsman actually lacks the authority to put her on the payroll, but is reluctant to admit it, and the guardsman begins to feel that Alysina might not have any information of immediate use. He kicks the disguised changeling out of his office with a few last empty threats related to interference with an official investigation.

The party soon gathers together a few blocks away, giving Alysina the opportunity to share the significant information she has managed to gather. Whether she acts on the opportunity is up to her, of course.

Feel free to fill each other in and then let me know what you are doing next.

[Rystil Arden]

(OOC: Aww man, I guess that's the casualty of the switch-over--the guard guy was actually Friendly/Helpful to Alys and seemed almost certainly about to agree when Erekose dropped X_X I was sooo looking forward to that writ, too.

Also, Alys definitely did have information of immediate use to him. I'm okay with just skipping forward and handwaving that part if such is the plan, but can we do it in a way that hurts Alysina's reputation a bit less than getting the guard pissed at her--she already had to suffer a 'failed investigation' along with Rionus from the last game, and she wants to have a good resume )

[Patlin]

ooc: OK, I can modify slightly to accomodate that. Alysina wns the guard over, and he sheepishly admits he doesn't have the authority to add anyone to the payroll. She can choose to provide him information anyway just to supplement her reputation, if she pleases.

It'll help me to get started, though, if we have the whole party in one place, filled in, and deciding on a course of action. I'm therefore sticking with the scene switch.

[Rystil Arden]

(OOC: Okey dokey, sounds good to me! Just happy to keep going.

A few things to keep in mind--First, before she fills them in, she's going to retrieve the stuff to keep her alive/not-insane that you might have seen mentioned in the SBLOCK with the Gnome. She was heading for it when Weapon and the guards had the little altercation.

Second (as mentioned upthread a few times), if she doesn't get the guards' patronage, Alys plans on having the others wait for a bit while she checks out Morgrave, The Six, and all other possible avenues of pursuit for better patrons since she's currently of the opinion that their patron isn't paying even nearly enough for it to be worth trying the crazy and dangerous task without a supplemental source of income)

[Patlin]

ooc: You might want to make an in character proposal to head back to the scene of the fire, then. Also, you might want to fill them in on the way. I make no guarantees that the situation will not deteriorate over time!

[Rystil Arden]

*After Alys leaves the guards, muttering a bit to herself, she tells everyone to hold on a minute while she goes to get something important she left behind. She then heads back to the house by herself to retrieve the items she needs from the safe.*

*Once she has accomplished this (OOC: Or stop me if it isn't as easy as the gnome made it sound!), she heads back to the others and lets them know of the following--*

"Hi again everyone! Alysina Verani, as always, on duty! So, yeah guys. It turns out what's going on is this: There's a big evil Aberrant Dragonmark thing belowground that the gnome was investigating. It causes people to go insane and start killing, including his former team, but thanks to me, we should all be safe. So mystery solved!"

"The trouble is that Gnome guy wants us to take on a very dangerous task...he has offered us a clearly insufficient amount of gold for our services on what may be a suicide mission. Of course, we're basically the only ones who can do it, so my plan is to get us a better patron, and then we can go try. What do you think?" she asks the others.

[Patlin]

Do you all remain tamely behind and wait for Alysina to return?

[stonegod]

"I will accompany you. The building is still unstable, and assistance may be needed. I know also where the safe is. Do you need accompaniment for your protection on your other search?"

[Rystil Arden]

"Hmm...it would probably best if I looked through my other contacts alone. The Merlock Gnomes were known for the phrase 'Let's split up, gang!'. Also, I still have a nagging feeling that we lost a lot of momentum last time when everyone got back together again. It's like we said before--some of of us are very good 'bad cops', and I'll bet they got lots of info out of that halfling girl, but sometimes, it pays to present a friendlier face. Literally pays, you know? Oh dear, sorry for the pun guys!"

[Wik]

Brelach shrugs. "The more money you can get, the better. But I don't think we should send you off alone - what stops you from negotiating five thousand, and telling us you negotiated three?"

Brelach leans against a nearby wall, and pauses as if to consider something. "I think I should go with you. And don't worry" he grins. "I can be charming if I want to."

[Rystil Arden]

"Yeah....nah. Remember what happened at the guard post, right?" Alys smiles and shrugs.

[Wik]

"I was bored." Brelach shrugs. "Trust me, I can handle myself. Besides, this sounds like magic might be involved, and I have a few contacts in the Arcane Congress who would be interested - especially interested in getting involved, if we can convince them that The Twelve have already given us an offer."

OOC: I really just want in on the adventure, as opposed to splitting the group up again. I still have little idea what's going on.

[Rystil Arden]

(OOC: At the adventure's start, Alys might have been willing to let some others go with her, though that remarkably hampers her ability to disguise who she is and get offers in multiple identities, but after the fiasco at the guard station, it just is not believable at all that she would even consider letting him come. It's like a lose / lose horribly situation for her

If this is a metagame-based request, we could try to come to a metagamey agreement, but I'm not sure how satisfying that would be either)

[Wik]

(OOC: I sort of regret Brelach's little guardhouse fiasco, but this is the sort of thing I'm likely to do when the only imput I've had in an adventure is choosing which tavern to interrogate the bad guys at, and I'm playing an obvious jerk.

The fact is, the thing that *really* hurt this adventure is that it's actually two adventures, and one PC had the major information-gathering role, while the rest of the party was focused on acquiring one minor piece of information.

Brelach is, if you read his background, something of a 'spy'. While he did act a bit rashly earlier, he's usually the type of character to fill in a role similar to Alys. I can understand why it would be out of character to have him trail along...

...but, that being said, I really don't want to be sitting in another couple of months where one group sits back and watches what the other group does. Personally, I'm all for saying "Alys finds us a patron, now let's go into the dungeon" in a single post.

But if Alys is going to be trying to find us an employer, I want the whole group involved.

My two cents.

[Rystil Arden]

Personally, I'm all for saying "Alys finds us a patron, now let's go into the dungeon" in a single post.

Yup. I was hoping exactly for something of that ilk as well. Like a post or two. I would be upset if we had to branch again (not even just for Brelach, but Arvan and Weapon definitely aren't negotiators, and I want them to get some action soon if they can). This looks like it will be a great advanture, but the motivation of the characters makes sense that they would be looking for more money--we are sitting on something that powerful people should clearly pay tons of cash for, and I have a feeling that if everyone told us 'Screw you. We aren't paying' or there was just a sudden surge of the problem and we ran out of time to get patrons, etc, a lot of us would just go somewhere else and let Sharn and the people who refused to pay us suffer for their greed as 'entropy increases' and all that

[Patlin]

ic: Alysina considers the situation, and when Weapon mentions protection a cold chill goes up her spine. Is it a 6th sense, warning her of danger? Perhaps it was a cool breeze, or a mere bit of indigestion, but perhaps it was more. She realizes even with her abilities to disguise herself, going off alone might be unwise.

ooc: If Alysina goes off by herself, I will split this into two threads. I want the adventure to continue for everybody, and that's hard to do when everyone is split up. If you can find an in character reason to let the other players in on the important information Alysina is in posession of, that would be nice, but we are kicking this off soon.

Also, if anyone intends to follow Alysina whether she wants you to do so or not please clarify that. Alysina would need to figure out how to ditch you, which she could probably manage if she went to sufficient effort.

[Wik]

Well, I know Patlin is the DM of all this, so it's his say, but I'd be happy with each PC picking an employer or someone that they know who would be interested in paying us money, and then making a check of some sort. Some quick ideas of who would be interested:

Alys mentioned Morgrave, or the Six. Brelach knows some people in Aundair's Arcane Congress. I know we have someone with a Dragonmark, and that would definately merit some chasing. We could get someone else to ask The Twelve. And finally send someone to speak to Sharn's government.

[Wik]

OOC: Ah, Patlin posted the same time I did.

I think we're all in agreement that the group should be acting as a whole. I really think something quick and painless would be the way to settle things.

Personally, I want to see Weapon crack some skulls.

[Patlin]

ooc: If everyone decides to simply trust Alysina to do it, and leaves her to her own devices, I will also try to accelerate that. Assuming she isn't attacked in the process, that is.